The Day You Changed the Economy

I was there when we transformed the economy. Were you? It happened 15 – 17 May 2017 at the Regenerative Future Summit. Held in Boulder, Colorado, the Summit featured leading thinkers in the new economy, CEOs, activists and 300 citizens gathered to create a Regenerative Economy.

Scholars who framed the concepts now guiding global sustainable business and development set the context. Bob Costanza, one of the team who established the Planetary Boundaries, teamed with John Fullerton, author of Regenerative Capitalism, and Kate Raworth, the renegade economist, whose new book, Doughnut Economics, to show how to ensure dignity and prosperity for all people.

Working groups tackled topics from transforming finance to accelerating the spread of electric car charging stations to regenerative agriculture. They set out pragmatic actions that communities and companies need to implement to create a world that works for 100% of humanity. They framed implementation strategies to transform:

Culture

Civil Society

Business

Consciousness

Finance

Media

Education

Agriculture

Politics

Energy

The Summit announced a narrative for an economy in service to life. Based in the discipline of Humanistic Management, it tells a new story of who we are as human beings. If you’ve had an economics class, or even been around more than a few years, you’ve been told that people are basically greedy. Despite the urgings of all of the world’s great religions, “neoliberalism,” the economic narrative that now runs the world, has convinced us that “greed is good.” The sole goal of the economy and business, it says, is to generate financial wealth. The freedom of the individual (person or corporation) is the primary societal value. Markets are perfect and all of us individualistically maximizing our own desires will somehow deliver a world that works.

Except that it didn’t. By 2017 eight men have as much wealth as the bottom 3.5 billion humans on earth. The middle class is sinking into poverty with mothers working two jobs to support their families, while proponents of austerity cut social services to give greater tax benefits to the richest one percent. Give money to the rich, they tell us, they’re rich, they will invest it and we’ll all be better off. If we just let the free market sort things out, all will be well.

Except that we aren’t. The rich call themselves “job creators.” The rich invested in financial instruments that benefited the big banks. So, in 2016, the bonuses paid to Wall St. bankers, if shared among minimum wage earners, would have doubled the minimum wage. Just the bonuses.

“Government is the problem,” say the neoliberals. “The only role for government is to maintain a strong military. Government should be small, protecting individuals and their private property. Regulations (which to most of us mean the rules that protect us from shoddy workmanship, pollution and products that may harm our health) were cut wherever possible.” And people died.

True freedom and success depend on creating a world where individuals flourish and we all prosper.

Governments serve us best when they recognize our individual dignity and enhance our interconnectedness.

To thrive, businesses and society must pivot toward a new purpose: shared well-being on a healthy planet.

This new economic story balances our innate entrepreneurialism and individualism with fairness and our desire to bond with others. There is a business case for this view: purpose-driven organizations that respect dignity enjoy greater productivity. More sustainable brands and ethical investments deliver higher profitability.

It wasn’t a left wing or right wing exercise. As conservative commentator, David Brooks put it, the future of the U.S. (and many other countries) “…is not going to be found in protecting jobs that are long gone or in catering to the fears of aging whites. There is a raging need for a movement that embraces economic dynamism, global engagement and social support — that is part Milton Friedman on economic policy, Ronald Reagan on foreign policy and Franklin Roosevelt on welfare policy.”

The people who met in May reached consensus on ways to meet the challenges facing us. They embraced the value of market mechanisms and cooperative action for shared prosperity. They distilled the best of both approaches to create a new narrative of an economy in service to life.

I was there.

And you can be, too. Because this event hasn’t happened yet. You haven’t missed it.

Check out growing list of speakers and panelists and register to join us at the Summit website.

Be there. Enjoy a rare opportunity to interact with many of the world’s top experts and help build the Regenerative Future.